Written by

Carlton Proctor
cproctor@pnj.com

For 14 years it has been one of Pensacola's best-kept secrets: a successful high-tech company that's homegrown and employs some of the city's best and brightest.

While CTS America has kept a deliberate low profile during that time, it's hard to maintain anonymity when you've just won a highly competitive $30 million software contract with the state of Florida, beating out such tech giants as Motorola.

"Winning that contract was vital to us and vital to the area," CEO Kay Stephenson said. "We are a relatively small company, but we play big. ...